I am Yoshiki Hirooka from the Department of Endoscopy, Nagoya University Hospital. I was appointed as chairperson of the Editorial Committee of The Japan Society of Ultrasonics in Medicine’s official journals on July 22, 2018. I would like to take this opportunity to address the members of The Japan Society of Ultrasonics in Medicine and all relevant parties as I assume my new post. As chairperson of the Editorial Committee, I am committed to the further advancement of The Japan Society of Ultrasonics in Medicine and its journals. I look forward to working together with everyone.

Around the time that Dr. Shiro Kozuma was chairperson, work began in earnest to get our official journal (J Med Ultrasonics: JOMU) listed on MEDLINE, and that goal was subsequently reached under the leadership of Chairperson Hiroshi Kanai, a wonderful accomplishment indeed. You could say that it was a major turning point for The Japan Society of Ultrasonics in Medicine. A journal serves as the face of an academic society, and our official journal, in particular, is how we raise the profile of The Japan Society of Ultrasonics in Medicine around the world.

The “impact factor” is an indicator used to evaluate English-language journals. The impact factor for JOMU was 0.677 in 2017, which was higher than the 0.455 in 2016. The 2017 impact factor was determined by how often articles published in JOMU in 2015 and 2016 were cited in other articles (number of citations/number of articles in 2 years). Therefore, as many citable articles as possible need to be published to get a higher impact factor. In general, case reports are not cited very often, and I think that Chairperson Kanai’s strategy of putting in place more stringent requirements for publication resulted in a higher impact factor. I think that another major factor was the publication of many excellent articles worthy of citation. I will endeavor to increase JOMU’s impact factor going forward by continuing this strategy. I would like to ask all of you to cite articles published in JOMU in 2016/2017 to increase JOMU’s impact factor in 2018. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.